1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to integrated circuits in general and, more particularly, to a system and method for programming and using a specialized instruction unit for the streamlined execution of selected instructions.
2. Description of Related Art
The concept of executing instructions is generally well known. A typical processor decodes an instruction stream, stores data and instructions as necessary in registers, controls branching and load/store operations, and executes instructions in a logic unit. In many instances, a complex operation requires a large number of processor cycles. Alternatively, when a complex operation requires hardware outside the processor in order to execute all or part of the complex operation, input/output exchanges add overhead to the processing and often cause delays in executing the complex operation. In other cases, a series of operations are found to occur in the instruction stream multiple times.
A system and method is therefore needed which executes the complex operation or the series of operations in an efficient manner. Even better would be a general way of handling both cases as they might arise in the instruction stream.